Pope Francis was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2013 until his death in 2025. Valley News/Wikipedia Commons photo
Chris Summers
The Epoch Times
The funeral of Pope Francis I, the first leader of the Roman Catholic Church to come from the Western Hemisphere, will take place on Saturday, the Vatican announced Tuesday.
Pope Francis—born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, and formerly the cardinal archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina—died on April 21 at 7:35 a.m. after suffering a stroke, falling into a coma, and suffering heart failure.
He was 88 years old and had been the leader of the Roman Catholic Church since 2013.
Hours before he died, the pope emerged on Easter Sunday to bless the thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, and delivered his traditional Urbi et Orbi address.
He also met U.S. Vice President JD Vance—who converted to Catholicism in 2019—who was visiting Rome, en
